The Year of Moving Forward

Friday, June 25, 2010

Progressive - it's a good thing

I guess I'm a little behind in this because this poll came out in May, but after considering the results I think its worth bringing everyone, including myself, up to date.

Progressivism is a good thing.

A Pew Research poll finds that 68% of Americans react favorably to the word "progressive" and only 23% react negatively.

This is a more favorable reaction than was found toward the word "capitalism" (52% positive, 37% negative).

Even among Republicans a majority (56%) reacted positive to "progressive."

Now it could well be that respondents were thinking of Progressive spokesperson Flo when they answered the question.

Here is a surprising number that might help us to know what to expect in the future. The same percent of young people (ages 18-29) have a positive reaction to "socialism" (43%) as do "capitalism" (43%).

So what is it that progressives want to accomplish? The "progressive agenda" was put forth on Left in Alabama last month, and progressive bloggers got together to map out a course to accomplish some of these things.

On the national scene (these are not listed in order of priority because as progressives we believe that more than one problem can be tackled at a time):

1. Campaign finance and lobbying reform

2. Single payer health insurance, public option

3. Clean energy program, moving away from oil dependency

4. Immigration reform (secure borders, path to legitimacy for those here and who want to come here)